Library that have a comic shop that they do business with can cordinate Free Comic Book Day with them. Free Comic Book Day is the first Saturday of every May. This year it is on May 7, 2011. The local comic shop purchases these “Free Comic Books” for around $.20 – $.25 per issue, so if you want to order some titles to place within the library the comic shop might ask you to reimburse them for the expense. When you look at the titles available you will notice that there is something for all ages (click link below to Free Comic Book Day’s website). Therefore, librarians won’t have to worry about a child picking up an issue that is geared for a teenager or mature reader.
You can ask if they could give you a selection of titles with their store’s name stamped on the comic. However, the amount of books you receive will be by chance unless you work something out with the owners. Royce does this with his comic book shop and the owner gives him coupons to hand to his patrons to get a free comic when they go to the store. The cool part with Royce’s contact is that the owner draws an image on the coupon so the patron also gets a free piece of art.
My library purchases our “Free Comic Books” and by the time we receive them the day is past. Because this happens we have a Free Comic Book Week after the actual weekend. We have the children issues at the front desk and the young adult titles on the bookshelf tops in their area.
When they are first place out to the public we have a limit of issues they can get and then by the end of the week we begin to lift that restriction for patrons that really want another title. We usually allow three issues per patron. We don’t limit the age of what the patron is either. There are adult patrons that read graphic novels and will appreciate getting a couple of issues for free.
Really who can resist free!
